Dynasty Warriors 6 preview

When it comes to working a franchise to death, you've got to hand it to Koei. While Electronic Arts have a reputation for spinning out endless updates and sequels on an annual basis, the Dynasty Warriors series has generated seventeen assorted sequels, expansions and spin-offs in its meagre eight-year span. Constant criticism has dogged the series since its inception, every release criticised for being superficially identical to the last, but DW6 looks to buck the trend, making its next gen transition with aplomb.

Words by Colin Whiteside , playing on a Microsoft Xbox 360.

While a hard core of dedicated fans are keen to convert doubters to its cause, the DW games have always had some obvious anachronisms, such as heavy fogging and the strictly ground-locked nature of the battles, issues that are all too reminiscent of the early PS2 titles that the first DW game developed around. The latest instalment puts much of this to rest, draw distances now reaching off to the horizon, and players being able to scale barricades, swim rivers, hop into boats and generally get stuck into the enemy lines with more gusto. Beyond these superficialities, a new addition to the gameplay in the form of the Renbu system should give newer players a helping hand, boosting up combos and attacks as the player avoids getting knocked down. Of course, most of the game-buying public will take one look at DW6 and write it off for still being about ancient Chinese warriors fighting hoards of enemies, which at this point is rather like writing off Grand Theft Auto 4 for revolving around stealing cars. Gamestyle will have a review of Dynasty Warriors 6 soon, but on current evidence, it looks to be one of the most accomplished releases in the series, and well worth picking up.